Tables Turned At Job Fair

For the second time in two years, Virdell Parker attended the Cook County Bar Association`s Minority Law Student Job Fair, but this year it was as one of the event`s success stories.

Last year, she was a new lawyer hoping to meet a prospective employer. This year, she had jobs to offer.

Now a recruiter for the Chicago corporation counsel`s office, Parker, 34, was hired after an interview at the job fair last year by the city Law Department`s finance and economic development division.

``I think I`m a little bit more sensitive to what they (students) are feeling,`` Parker said Saturday as she took a break from a daylong session of interviews at the job fair, held at Northwestern University`s School of Law.

Parker said that her job is what she has always wanted to do. Despite Parker`s enthusiasm about her work, her employment in a government agency is typical of what many minority law school graduates can expect, according to one of the fair organizers.

``About 79 percent of minority law school graduates work for the government,`` said Freddrenna Lyle, chairwoman of the Young Lawyers section of the Cook County Bar Association.

``Few work for private firms,`` Lyle said, adding that government agencies tend to pay lower salaries than private firms. The job fair, in part, was an attempt to introduce minority students to opportunities in the field of private law.

``We really wanted to use this as a vehicle to shake that number up,``

she said.

The number of legal organizations represented at the fair doubled this year, Lyle said, but she was disappointed that only eight private law firms sent representatives.

Recruiters often ask to interview only the top students, without considering individual skills, she said, a practice that often excludes minority students.

The academic performance of some minority students may be hampered because they must hold jobs to pay their way through law school, she said.

Noting that there has been a decline in minority enrollment in law schools--as in medical schools--Lyle said some potential students do not attend because of diminishing financial aid.